100 Strong: The Most Powerful Women Of The Channel

We pored over the applications, weighing the influence each woman wields in the channel. In the end, there were so many women who deserved to be on CRN's list we decided to change things up. This year, we celebrate 100 channel-changing achievements.

One thing that struck us as we read over these applications was the sheer number of years each woman has been involved in high tech. Perhaps the experience began with the thrill of starting up her own solution provider business. Or maybe it culminated in landing that top-level management position at a vendor or distributor. But, at some point, many of these women worked in a male-dominated industry. Today, according to a majority of them, that playing field is much more level.

What also stood out: a sense of community aimed at promoting themselves and each other. To join and help encourage that effort, we have created a community where we hope women will get involved, comment on common issues and hopefully solve problems. This community can be found at Channelweb Connect within the Women in the Channel Group at community.crn.com.

Congratulations to all the women on our list for their amazing achievements.

Patricia Atchison

Goals for this year: "In the coming year I plan to develop more tools, programs and incentives to help partners drive ROI more quickly and sell more comprehensive solutions to their customers. Other priorities include taking advantage of social media tools to better engage and communicate with our partners and creating a broader ecosystem between {C}

Symantec{C}

's channel partners and global strategic alliances."

Executives you admire: Anne Mulcahy, who "turned {C}

Xerox{C}

around from nearly going bankrupt to a return to profitability. Mulcahy has shown dedication and tenacity in her 24 years at {C}

Xerox{C}

and has made a successful effort to turn crisis into motivation."

Female role models: Anne Mulcahy

Wendy Bahr

Senior Vice President

Cisco

Years in position: 1.5

Years in channel: 4

Goals for this year: "Driving {C}

Cisco{C}

to value proposition through the introduction of architectural plays: borderless network, virtualization and collaboration, which positions partners as the business process innovators for the customers. We are getting our partners close to the customers to address business solution needs and further helping to expand our partner's services offerings to map to these solutions."

Executives you admire: Anne Mulcahy, formerly of

Xerox

. "Her leadership during a difficult period in their history was impressive."

Female role models: "My mother and grandmothers taught me that the only limits you have are the ones you place on yourself."

Tracy Balent-Hamrac

Vice President, Channel Sales, Americas

CA

Years in position: 1

Years in channel: 20

Goals for this year: "Our key focus will be enabling partners, product innovation and managed service offerings. We will enable value-added resellers by delivering enhanced sales/marketing tools, the delivery of qualified leads and by aligning our corporate account directors and solutions strategists with our partner's sales reps."

Executives you admire: Jack Welch, "for his innovative leadership qualities, demand for quality, knack for making tough decisions and driving the organization and employees to outperform the market."

Female role models: Madeleine Albright: "Having lived around the world, I respect her diplomacy and powerful decisions she made as U.N. Ambassador and first female Secretary of State." Also, "my mother, who taught me everything is possible."

Lori Barrington

Director, Global Channel Program Operations

APC by Schneider Electric

Years in position: 3

Years in channel: 12

Goals for this year: Top priorities include the implementation of a partner relationship management tool that will enable two-way automated communication with partners. Within that is the introduction of a partner-to-partner online community that will enable partners to collaborate as well as give realtime access to APC's subject matter experts.

Maria Battaglia

Senior Vice President, Marketing

OnForce

Years in position: 1

Years in channel: 1

Goals for this year: "I would like to demonstrate the value OnForce brings to the channel by establishing a philanthropic program that reflects and extends OnForce's culture; foster relationships with larger service providers; and continue to grow the channel program to open doors for OnForce service professionals."

Executives you admire: Beth Comstock, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of GE, (Battaglia's former manager at NBC)

Female role models: "My Irish grandmother, who worked during a time when most women didn't and supported her family. She had several qualities that I always looked up to; she was strong, fair and kind, and never lost her feminine edge. She instilled in us the idea that by leading an honest life, everything would fall into place."

NEXT: Becky Beane

Becky Beane

Director of Worldwide Channel Management

AMD

Years in position: 2 months

Years in channel: 15

Goals for this year: "My team and I are working to gain a better understanding of partner needs. We plan to identify targeted opportunities, and then provide programs that are supported by communications and enablement, which will ultimately allow partners to reach their goals and receive rewards from

AMD

. We also want to make sure that partners understand the advantages of working with

AMD

during the economic slump.

AMD

works hard to offer partners a valuable investment for the future because of the longevity of technology, easy upgrades and less complicated/expansive software integration."

Executives you admire: Larry Ellison: "He was, and still is, the visionary for his company. He knows his strengths and weakness and used that knowledge to surround himself with strong operational people. It's amazing that he was able to turn 40,000 people at

Oracle

to move in the right direction to reach the goal he was after."

Female role models: Ann Richards, former governor of Texas: "I would like to have met her before she passed away. She had energy, vitality and an ability to push through and make things happen." Also, Meg Whitman from

eBay

for "her strong vision and innovation; she was able to change how we buy and sell through the Internet."

Julie Bennani

General Manager, Partner Program, Worldwide Partner Group

Microsoft

Years in position: 2

Years in channel: 11

Goals for this year: "I hope to successfully land the next version of the

Microsoft

Partner Program with our field and partners in a way that supports and helps them extend their business. I'm also looking to work more closely with our product groups to clarify market growth opportunities and how to pursue them for our partners."

Executives you admire: Anne Mulcahy and Ursula Burns, from

Xerox

, for "how they are managing leadership development and transition. Also, a "toast to A.G. Lafley who just retired from P&G.

Female role models: "There are many amazing women executives out there and I greatly respect my boss, Allison Watson, and the work she has done to drive and embed the partner-led model externally and internally at

Microsoft

with unending energy, passion and endurance. I tend to lead quietly and fortunately there are many other strong executives within

Female role models: Neil Merlino, "how to really think big! I would have to say that the women leaders in IT in the channel have gone out of their way to support me and others. I feel that any one of us would help each other through any crisis or opportunity. Great minds and big hearts. These women are my friends."

Madeline Biskintaoui

Manager, North America Channels and Alliances

Talend

Years in position: 2 months

Years in channel: 10

Goals for this year: "Establish a world-class channels organization at Talend."

Executives you admire: Ann Winblad, software industry entrepreneur and technology leader as well as co-founder and a managing director at Hummer Winblad Venture Partners

Female role models: Michelle Obama

Aileen Black

Vice President, Federal Sales

VMware

Years in position: 4.5

Years in channel: 25

Goals for this year: Black hopes to work with customers to implement the best practices for cloud computing and continue expansion of VMware's virtualization solutions in the government. VMware's technology provides a return on investment in about six months.

Executives you admire: Colin Powell: Black is inspired by his philosophies around having a dream and then dedicating a lot of work and sweat to make that dream a reality.

Female role models: Her mother. "She was married to a two-star general and found herself living in strange locations raising five girls. Her ability to roll with the punches and adapt to change is evidenced in the success and balance all five daughters have found in life."

NEXT: Johnna Bowley

Johnna Bowley

Senior Director, Worldwide Channels, Partner and Field Marketing

Riverbed Technology

Years in position: 2

Years in channel: 18

Goals for this year: Will finalize the global rollout of Riverbed's VAR Partner Program by launching the Asia-Pacific phase. Will also accelerate Riverbed's channel leverage by realigning a portion of its distribution business model in North America from one tier to two tier. Will focus on building out the infrastructure and marketing organization to support Riverbed's growth.

Female role models: Her mother. "She is one of the strongest people I know. She never let anything stop her goals, and she became one of those people that you look at and wonder, 'How do you do it?' She raised a family, worked full time and yet always found time to be part of whatever was going on her children's lives."

Sharon Brindley

Vice President, North American Sales

Zebra Technologies

Years in position: 4

Years in channel: 13

Goals for this year: "Zebra has a unique opportunity to leverage our bar-code partners with our new and emerging product lines: mobile workforce, kiosk print stations, health-care solutions, card printing applications. In these tough economic times, partners are looking for their vendors to bring new opportunities to help grow their business. Zebra intends to do this for our partners."

Executives you admire: HP's Mark Hurd

Female role models: Laurie Benson, former head of Inacom Information Systems

Linda Brotherton

Chief Technology Officer

ConnectWise

Years in position: 11

Years in channel: 11

Goals for this year: "Expand our set of integration tools to allow for more vendors and partners to write directly to our product. This will allow for a great selection of tools to allow our customers to become more successful in their businesses."

Executives you admire: Anne Mulcahy, formerly of Xerox

Female role models: Anne Mulcahy

Angela Brown

President and CEO

Victory Global Solutions

Years in position: 8

Years in channel: 8

Goals for this year: "Grow my business to $8 million to $10 million, focus on offering two new technologies -- RFID and solar systems, also get more involved in community service."

Executives you admire: Valerie Jarrett, President Obama's assistant

Female role models: Valerie Jarrett

Gale Brown

Vice President, Channels, General Business

IBM

Years in position: 2

Years in channel: 15

Goals for this year: "My goal this year is to increase the success and penetration of IBM's channel in small and medium business by continuing to improve our programs, solutions and incentives that support profitable growth and investment."

Salena Butler

Senior Director Of Channel Sales

Epicor Software

Years in position: 3

Years in channel: 5.5

Goals for this year: Continue to enhance partner program with three-tiered professional services partner program; increase channel sales by 10 percent year over year; continue recruiting efforts and increase channel partners by 10 percent.

Executives you admire: Michael Pietrini

Female role models: Kelly Wallin

Jane Cage

COO

Heartland Technology Group

Years in position: 24

Years in channel: 24

Goals for this year: Develop more KPIs; work with executive team to move our focus more toward services; continue to develop systems and processes to increase profitability.

Sandra Carter

Vice President, IBM Software Channels

IBM

Years in position: 30 days

Years in channel: 9

Goals for this year: "I want to accomplish three things: Grow the channel contribution to incremental revenue growth for the software business at IBM; grow the channel profitability of the partners in our Growth Through Skills initiative; nurture a partner and channel community to grow professionally and personally in skills."

Executives you admire: Steve Mills

Female role models: Donna Van Fleet

Toni Clayton-Hine

Vice president, Worldwide Marketing

CA

Years in position: recently hired

Years in channel: 14

Goals for this year: "Work with a great team of people to continue to develop a leadership position for CA's Recovery Management and Data Modeling Products."

Executives you admire: "There are too many to name."

Female role models: My mother, Nancy Clayton

Linda Connly

Goals for this year: "Customers are asking vendors to collaborate on solutions that drive IT efficiencies so they can do more with less resources and budget. I am focused on developing appropriate programs with our technology alliance partners that encourage and help our sales forces to work together and provide opportunity for mutual channel partners."

Executives you admire: John Chambers, CEO of Cisco

Female role models: Anne Mulcahy, former Chairman and CEO of Xerox

NEXT: Leslie Conway

Leslie Conway

Vice President, Global Marketing

Digium

Years in position: 1

Years in channel: 18

Goals for this year: Continue to grow Digium by developing a successful world-class channel program; develop more sales tools and trainings to help educate partners; develop new technical and sales certification programs to enable partners to come up to speed quickly; develop lead-generation campaigns.

Executives you admire: Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric. "I was fortunate to be part of the Edison Engineering Program at GE when Jack was there. His innovative management strategies and leadership style left a lasting impression."

Female role models: NA

Carolyn Crandall

Vice President, Worldwide Marketing

i365, A Seagate Company

Years in position: 2

Years in channel: 24

Goals for this year: "See the recession in my rearview mirror! Also, continue to build the i365 brand as a leader in storage data protection and management and as a channel-friendly and "centric company; recruit partners into our new partner program and earn their recognition and respect."

Executives you admire: Nina Disesa, Chairman, McCann Erickson New York

Female role models: Nina Disesa

Julie Criscenti Heck

Director, Global Partner Marketing

VMware

Years in position: 2 plus

Years in channel: 16 plus

Goals for this year: "Our team has three primary goals in the next 12 months: drive partner revenue by enabling and distinguishing more VMware partners as the industry's premier virtualization experts through our new solution competency training; make it easier for partners to build their license and service business with VMware; build an effective social media communication strategy that broadens our reach."

Executives you admire: President Barack Obama

Female role models: "My sister-in-law, Janet Heck. Janet excelled at a prestigious Wall Street investment firm and has helped me maneuver through sensitive situations with her experience as one of the few executive women in her company."

Julie Cullivan

Senior Vice President, Worldwide Field Operations

McAfee

Years in position: 1 plus

Years in channel: 10

Goals for this year: "In 2009, McAfee will establish go-to-market initiatives around enterprise, corporate and midmarket segments. Accordingly, we will target new and existing reseller partners that represent best-in-breed capabilities in meeting the precise needs of end users in these segments."

Executives you admire: Dave Dewalt, President and CEO, McAfee. "Dave is an extremely smart and compassionate leader. He has an amazing capacity to engage and has a real interest in all aspects of the McAfee business."

Female role models: Margaret Thatcher: "She really paved the way for the many important women we now have playing key roles in government and business today."

Holly Downs

Channel Marketing Manager

Western Digital

Years in position: 3.5

Years in channel: 15

Goals for this year: Introduce automated MDP payment process in EMEA and APAC modeled after the highly successful Americas region implementation; continue to directly support efforts to become the No. 1 hard drive manufacturer.

Executives you admire: John Coyne, Western Digital's CEO and President, for "his consistent tenacity, perseverance and excellent leadership during the economic downturn."

Female role models: Katherine Hepburn for her "I can do anything" attitude.

NEXT: Michelle Drolet

Michelle Drolet

CEO

Towerwall

Years in position: 15

Years in channel: 20

Goals for this year: "Continue to build upon our service offerings for our customer base and increase revenue. Assist our customers with IT security projects and make sure that their names don't appear in the papers from security breaches."

Karen Falcone

Vice President, Global Channel Development/Distribution

SunGard Availability Services

Years in position: 1

Years in channel: 6

Goals for this year: "I plan to continue to drive performance in the distribution channel, adding more channel-ready services targeted at the SMB market. I also plan to further leverage our vendors' partner communities with joint go-to-market campaigns."

Executives you admire: Anne Mulcahy, Xerox Chairman and CEO, who recently announced her retirement. "She felt very strongly that all organizations should offer a level playing field for employees, which is what drew her to Xerox."

Female role models: Cathy Black, author of "Basic Black"

Tina Fisher

Senior Director of Purchasing

D&H Distributing

Years in position: 14 months

Years in channel: 18

Goals for this year: "I hope to educate my buying team in how to work closely with our vendors to create unique programs for our smaller dealers. Even larger-scale vendors are now coming to a better understanding of small businesses, as in small regional offices and practices. The more closely we are able to work with our vendors, the more tailored our offerings can be to the true specifications of the SMB marketplace."

Executives you admire: Michael and Dan Schwab, who are co-presidents of the company. "They're a very dynamic and supportive executive team with terrific insights about the business, since they have been immersed in the industry and the company for so many years."

Female role models: Wendy Bahr, Cisco Vice President U.S./Canada Channels. "Being in the presence of Wendy I see her strong-willed business intelligence in which she drives core messaging within the company. At the same time, she exudes a personable, down-to-earth persona in which she engages her audience at such a high level."

Lisa Friesenhahn

Vice President, Leasing, Services and Remarketing Sales

Avnet Technology Solutions, Americas

Years in position: 9

Years in channel: 23

Goals for this year: Expand Avnet Capital Solutions into Canada; identify areas where Avnet's major business lines can achieve growth despite the down economy and continue to provide value; provide links to worldwide sales teams to help them expand their services and remarketing teams.

Executives you admire: John Callies, Worldwide General Manager of IBM Global Financing

Tamela Gates May

Senior Director, National Resellers

Kaspersky Lab

Years in position: 2

Years in channel: 18

Goals for this year: "Continue to build Kaspersky's presence within the channel; continue to educate resellers that end users want to be informed of alternatives and that Kaspersky is the No. 1 trusted alternative when looking for security solutions."

Executives you admire: Jack Welch

Female role models: Her mother. Also must include Allyson Seelinger, former vice president of channel sales at Symantec.

Catherine Giordano

President and CEO

Knowledge Information Solutions

Years in position: 8

Years in channel: 8

Goals for this year: Business process improvement driving efficiency for IT process modeling and management applications

Executives you admire: Carly Fiorina, formerly of HP

Female role models: Meg Whitman, formerly of eBay

Tonia Gonsalves

Vice President, Partner Enablement

Hitachi Data Systems

Years in position: 5

Years in channel: 21

Goals for this year: "Continue the evolution of our partner training program, expand promotional benefits through our opportunity registration program; create an even more formalized and far-reaching demonstration equipment program."

Executives you admire: Jack Domme, Hitachi Data Systems CEO. "His leadership has driven the greatest success the company has recognized and his strategy has brought the channel into the top-level discussions of the company."

Female role models: "Honestly, my role models are both men and women. Each has shown value for both integrity of standards and a desire for the highest excellence. Beyond that, my mother is the main role model in my life. Her positive attitude in life established a belief for her and me that there is no barrier that can hold a person back."

Jocelyn Graham

Marketing Director

AllenPort

Years in position: 1

Years in channel: 10 plus

Goals for this year: "That AllenPort will be recognized as the company that connected the client and the cloud and be responsible for the paradigm shift away from traditional IT to a new model that liberates users from both oppressive infrastructure and expense."

Executives you admire: David Packard, William Hewlett and Meg Whitman

Female role models: Diana Bell, former Senior Vice President, HP

NEXT: Regina Grieco

Regina Grieco

Director of Sales

Astaro

Years in position: 2

Years in channel: 7

Goals for this year: Hopes to continue growing Astaro's channel and continue to contribute to Astaro's overall revenue growth; also wants to expand and strengthen her sales team.

Executives you admire: David Rogers. "Dave has been someone I have admired for years, since the day he joined the Astaro team. He came in with a ton of knowledge, energy and excited for the team and product line."

Female role models: "My mother, who amazes me, supports me and never disappoints me. She was able to raise two kids and work a full-time job and still be home to cook every night and take us everywhere we needed to be. She is an independent woman, who has no problem saying what's on her mind. She is someone that I strive to be like and I want to make her proud."

Donna Grothjan

Vice President, Worldwide Channel Strategy and Operations

Juniper Networks

Years in position: 4.5

Years in channel: 20 plus

Goals for this year: "Continue partner enablement and recruitment efforts to develop an even stronger J-Partner community that is trained to cross-sell across our portfolio; complete build-out of infrastructure to enable a best-in-class managed services model; strive for a better work-life balance."

Executives you admire: "I admire individuals who stay true to their beliefs and their actions clearly demonstrate that."

Female role models: "My mom has always been a strong role model for me. At an early age, she instilled a strong work ethic and reinforced that you should always appreciate what you have and don't take things for granted."

Celia Harper-Guerra

Senior Director, Partner Talent

Cisco

Years in position: 3

Years in channel: 3

Goals for this year: "Build an eco-talent skills sharing system to align with our global collaborative channel; launch 'League of Superhumans,' a partner and Cisco collaborative open online community -- the first of its kind for channel organizations and a fusion of both professional and social networking; collaborate with partners and universities to create a new curriculum focused on Informatics on Unified Communications -- social media Web 2.0 technologies."

Executives you admire: Meg Whitman of eBay

Female role models: : Laura Bush for her work in Afghanistan with women

Hope Hayes

President

Alliance Technology Group

Years in position: 12

Years in channel: 26

Goals for this year: "Several years ago, the Alliance management team developed a growth strategy. The goal is to continue that plan and continue the growth of Alliance. All too often, companies develop a great plan and then stray from the plan and fail because of it. The Alliance plan is working and we will continue with it."

Executives you admire: Eric Schmidt

Female role models: Regina Kunkle, NetApp

Jodi Honore

Vice President, Vendor Management

Ingram Micro

Years in position: 9

Years in channel: 28

Goals for this year: "Continue to innovate to make solution providers more successful at selling and servicing software; maintain relevancy and relationships with key software vendor partners; look for new revenue opportunities within the software categories; foster teamwork and continue to provide leadership and training to provide for succession planning at Ingram."

Kristi Houssiere

Director of Sales and Channel Programs

Websense

Years in position: 2

Years in channel: 17

Goals for this year: "I am always on a mission to increase our partners' profitability. I would like to update our partner portal to enable more collaboration and communication within our partner community and ignite knowledge transfer and minimize sales cycles. I will also be keeping a keen eye on process automation and efficiencies so that we remain easy to do business with."

Executives you admire: David Roberts, Senior Vice President of Sales: "He is an amazing leader with loads of charisma and integrity."

Patricia Hume

Global Senior Vice President of Channel and Alliances for SME

SAP AG

Years in position: 1.5

Years in channel: 15

Goals for this year: "We've chosen to invest specifically in helping our partners grow in the true small business and midsize enterprise 'sweet spot,' defined as companies that have under $500 million in annual revenue. Approximately 55 percent of our SME business is channel-led today, and we want to increase it to 100 percent as rapidly as possible. We've strengthened our product portfolio as well as partner services with this in mind."

Executives you admire: John Chambers, CEO of Cisco

Female role models: "In my early career at IBM I worked on the R&D (engineering) side of the business. At that time, there were few women who were senior managers in the organizations that I worked within. I think that these women were collectively role models for me as I watched them lead successful organizations during a time when it was not as acceptable for women to have more senior roles. What I found most interesting about this is how well they cared for one another and supported one another. I was fortunate to be identified as a high potential and they all took a keen interest in my success and as such I was mentored by them."

Kate Hunt

Partner Support Manager

MSP University

Years in position: 1

Years in channel: 6

Goals for this year: Double MSP University's corporate membership number and increase retention rates. Develop and execute new strategies so that both sides of the channel -- vendors and VARs -- get the highest levels of business benefit out of their partnerships.

Executives you admire: Katie McAuliff, Novell

Female role models: My mother

Pamela Johansen

Director, Worldwide Channel Operations

BMC Software

Years in position: 4

Years in channel: 7

Goals for this year: "Implement our Fiscal Year 2010 partner program, utilizing deal registration, value-based discounting and forecasting; continue to automate internal tools to drive operational efficiencies; drive partner communities via the Solution Provider Portal and implement a live chat feature; revitalize the current Partner Advisory Council into a working group that will deliver program recommendations; deliver on GEO-based Partner Forums to deliver on partner strategy, key messages and sales enablement."

Executives you admire: Bob Beauchamp, CEO, BMC Software

Female role models: Meg Whitman, former president and CEO of eBay

Julie Jones

Vice President, Marketing

Insight

Years in position: 1

Years in channel: 11

Goals for this year: "Increase Insight.com revenue year over year through implementation of year-one initiatives in Web strategy; drive awareness of Insight brand through enhanced demand generation and other activities and sports marketing sponsorships; continue development of new integrated marketing organization; continue to contribute as an active leader at work and in the community."

Executives you admire: Mark Hurd, CEO, HP

Female role models: Anne Mulcahy, formerly of Xerox

NEXT: Colleen Kapase

Colleen Kapase

Senior Director, Worldwide Channel Programs

VMware

Years in position: 3

Years in channel: 15

Goals for this year: "To get partners to complete the necessary training for our four new competencies, especially the desktop virtualization competency as that is expected to be a high-growth segment. In addition, our goal is for partners to earn the extra margin available when selling the new products through the advantage+ program, called solution+."

Executives you admire: Carl Eschenbach, Executive Vice President of Worldwide Field Operations at VMware. He "brings a level of integrity and work ethic to VMware that is inspiring."

Female role models: "Any woman who is a working mom. As a new mom, I have a new appreciation for the amount of work it takes to meet the needs of a family and continue driving your career."

Debra Keith

Director of Telesales and Telemarketing

Autodesk

Years in position: 1.5

Years in channel: 15

Goals for this year: "Launch Project Day Break, a new business model that will shift VARs' focus toward selling to large customers in an effort to increase their profit margins as well as Autodesk's in turn -- Project Day Break will increase contact with an important part of Autodesk's customer base, comprising 20 percent of North American subscription revenue that has been vulnerable to non-renewal; drive 35 percent increase in new business contribution; accelerate the performance of VARs by helping drive their own sales and become telesales experts; enhance operational excellence by reducing administrative costs spent prospecting on the phone by 50 percent."

Executives you admire: Steve Blum, senior vice president of the Americas, Autodesk

Female role models: "From a business perspective, Carol Bartz, former executive chairman, president and CEO, Autodesk and now CEO of Yahoo. I've known Carol for a long time. Eleanor Roosevelt is my personal role model."

Meaghan Kelly

Goals for this year: Will continue to oversee HP's SMB pipeline management and forecasting processes and work across the company's three business units (Technology Solutions Group, Imaging and Printing Group and Personal Systems Group) to develop and implement growth strategies with SPO's SMB sales, partner marketing and regional business unit teams.

Executives you admire: Meg Whitman, former president and CEO of eBay. "Whitman's philosophy is, 'Executive leadership is a span of influence, not of control.' Through a collaborative leadership style, Whitman's philosophy is to not assume you know more than the marketplace or community."

Female role models: Madeleine Albright, former U.S. Secretary of State. "Albright has an uncanny ability to translate her experiences into advice and direction that can be applied to any industry or situation."

Kendra Krause

Vice President, Channel Sales

Fortinet

Years in position: 8 months

Years in channel: 11

Goals for this year: "To become better-tuned to the ever-changing needs of our channel partners so that I can continue to drive channel growth not only for Fortinet -- but perhaps more importantly -- for our partners. We have had a lot of VARs looking for options to help manage during a down economy and I believe it is the role of a vendor to help them withstand challenging economic times. I plan to continue such initiatives if needed."

Executives you admire: Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBay. "Whitman has been described as a leader who 'leads by leading, bosses by not bossing, and manages by not managing.'"

Female role models: "Susan Nokes, chief customer and operations officer of T-Mobile, grew her career from the ground up, from a customer service rep. As a woman in technology, I greatly value and admire her ability to continue to be personable and not abandon her caring, feminine side in order to be successful."

Dolores Kruchten

General Manager, Business Solutions and Services Group, And Vice President, Eastman Kodak Company

Kodak

Years in position: 2

Years in channel: 10 plus

Goals for this year: "Will continue to maximize the capabilities of the Business Solutions and Services Group to bring end-user customers realtime return on investment. Kodak expects to enhance its business service offerings through integrating broad technology portfolio and growing channel relationships. This combination will ensure the most option for channel vendors to create relevant, high-value solutions designed for specific vertical market applications, including health care, government and finance."

Executives you admire: n/a

Female role models: Hillary Clinton: "She brings an eclectic mix of compassion and strength to implement real change, and to benefit the greater good."

NEXT: Juliann Larimer

Juliann Larimer

Vice President, North America Channels

NCR

Years in position: 6 months

Years in channel: 13

Goals for this year: "Continue to enhance our channel partner relationships to create even more engaged and motivated 'sales teams' in the channel. I will also selectively recruit and sign 15 new channel partners to address new and existing markets, along with territory coverage development to continue our sales growth."

Executives you admire: David Elliott, the general manager for Madge Networks. "He had an inspired and inspiring leadership style that brought out the very best in everyone who worked for him."

Female role models: "My grandmother has been a strong role model. She is a hard worker, is always learning something new and trying something different."

Betsy Larson

Vice President, Channel Sales

NEC Display Solutions

Years in position: 1

Years in channel: 14

Goals for this year: "We plan to continue assisting our partners with NEC's partner program, taking advantage of the convergence of our programs and services. The program is built on providing easy access, unprecedented value and experienced support to our vast reseller and system integrator network."

Executives you admire: Steve Jobs of Apple. "He has repeatedly come up with visionary products from the Apple computer to the iPod to iTunes. He is a leader in the technology industry and his success is truly inspirational."

Female role models: Sandra Day O'Connor. "She was a firm, fair pioneer and role model for women. It's admirable that she was intelligent and well-respected without drawing attention to herself. She made great strides for women with her historical contributions in her role as Supreme Court Justice."

Kim Lewis

Senior Director, Pan Am Sales

Western Digital

Years in position: 25

Years in channel: 32

Goals for this year: "Grow the market awareness for Western Digital storage and consumer products."

Executives you admire: Lee Iacocca

Female role models: Mother

Jane Linder

Managing Director

NWN

Years in position: 5

Years in channel: 13

Goals for this year: "Double services revenue and profits in the Business Solutions practice and work much more closely with the geographic regions to help drive the whole NWN stack, from technology vision through managed services."

Executives you admire: My husband and business partner, Mont Phelps

Female role models: "I have huge respect for the ordinary heroines we all rely on every day. I try to learn something from each one."

Selina Lo

President and CEO

Ruckus Wireless

Years in position: 4

Years in channel: 10

Goals for this year: "Our current goal is to break even by year's end and reach profitability in Q1, 2010. We are currently on track to exceed those expectations."

Maureen Lonergan

Director, Channel Enablement

VMware

Years in position: 1

Years in channel: 10

Goals for this year: "We plan to enhance our global channel enablement strategy by continuing to build robust training and enablement programs that enhance the skills of VMware partners. We will look to best-of-breed technology to develop and deliver timely, relevant content for our partner community."

Executives you admire: John Wood, Room to Read

Female role models: "My mother has been the best role model. She raised four children and has maintained a successful career and marriage for more than 40 years. She has always balanced her professional and personal life understanding where to prioritize her time. She is an amazing person and she inspires me every day."

Jean Lozano

Director of Channel Marketing

Trend Micro

Years in position: 3

Years in channel: 9

Goals for this year: "Leverage the use of social media as part of our overall business; greater interaction with partners; continued support for my team's ongoing professional development."

Erin Malone

Senior Director, Sales and Channel Programs

Websense

Years in position: 3.5

Years in channel: 12

Goals for this year: "Launch and scale a specialized demand generation program for top-performing partners; add more simplicity to the ChannelConnect program; build more awareness for Websense's three core technologies; enable our Silver and Gold partners to grow their business and become Platinum; increase the number of partners transacting every quarter by 25 percent."

Executives you admire: Brenda Barnes, CEO, Sara Lee

Female role models: My mother

Jillian Mansolf

Vice President, Worldwide Sales and Marketing

Overland Storage

Years in position: Just started

Years in channel: 13

Goals for this year: "Partners today are more knowledgeable and have more choices than ever, however, the basic principle of business still applies: Partners do business with companies that understand their needs and deliver on their promises. My aim this year is to build partner-led, customer-centric resource and lead-generation programs that will enable our partners to accelerate their sales cycles and increase profitability."

Executives you admire: "What Steve Jobs has accomplished at Apple is nothing short of miraculous. Rebuilding a company while changing the way people work and live is something to be admired."

Female role models: NA

NEXT: Julia McConaughy

Julia McConaughy

Director, Channel Marketing and Ops

Aruba Networks

Years in position: 2

Years in channel: 14

Goals for this year: "Further develop our channel program to reward partners who invest in Aruba and offer greater value throughout the sales cycle."

Executives you admire: Jack Welch of GE

Female role models: NA

Bonnie McMenomy

Channel Marketing Manager

ESET

Years in position: 3

Years in channel: 11

Goals for this year: "I hope to wake up each morning regardless of what city or time zone I happen to be in, with great personal satisfaction that I have made a significant impact somewhere and for someone. As well as continue to meet my personal and professional goals while supporting our fast-growing channel with innovative, profitable programs and shorter length of time to realize a return on investment."

Executives you admire: Anton Zajac, ESET President and CEO. for "his vision, innovation and successful navigation of ESET and our family."

Female role models: "My female role model has always been Toni Clayton-Hine for her endless energy and always standing tall."

Debbie Medal

Senior Director of Worldwide Channel Communications

NetApp

Years in position: 8

Years in channel: 8

Goals for this year: Continue developing the execution strategy of channel partner communications for NetApp worldwide; work more with global leads in all GEOs for a globally integrated NetApp Partner Program.

Executives you admire: NA

Female role models: NA

Susan Molnar

Executive Director, Partner Sales

Verizon

Years in position: 3

Years in channel: 3

Goals for this year: Exceed annual objectives while simultaneously shifting revenue mix to weigh more heavily on strategic services; attract new partners into the indirect channel for Verizon.

Executives you admire: Brenda Barnes, CEO of Sara Lee: "She has spirit and determination to pull off business recovery."

Female role models: Alice Paul, a leader in the women's suffrage movement.

Cathy Morris

Senior Vice President, Chief Strategy Officer

Arrow Electronics

Years in position: 1 plus

Years in channel: 20

Goals for this year: "Today's economic challenges require unique solutions to assist our partners. In the event we encounter structural changes in the channel, we will be ready to provide our partners with enhanced services as those changes occur."

Executives you admire: Indra Nooyi, chairman and CEO of PepsiCo: "I admire her vision as well as her views on corporate responsibility and confidence."

Female role models: Fran Keeth, a member of Arrow's board of directors, "has had an amazing career in a challenging industry. Now retired, she was executive vice president of Shell Chemicals Limited, in addition to various roles of increasing importance within the company."

NEXT: Ellie Nazemoff

Ellie Nazemoff

President and CEO

Acolyst

Years in position: 25

Years in channel: 25

Goals for this year: "Being a role model and mentor for many future entrepreneurs and business owners that want to have a footprint in the government sector."

Executives you admire: "Executives that lead with all constituents in mind -- investors, employees, community and environment."

Female role models: Meg Whitman, Carol Bartz and other pioneering women CEOs in technology. "They are blazing a trail for all of us."

Stacy Nethercoat

Vice President, Software Product Marketing

Tech Data

Years in position: 2.5

Years in channel: 14

Goals for this year: "Tech Data's software and IT teams are initiating a multiyear effort to develop systems and tools that will position Tech Data to lead in our ability to support emerging software delivery models, including hosted solutions, ISVs and cloud computing. We're also finalizing details for a new open-source plan. And we will continue to support Tech Data's Economic Stimulus Watch, ensuring we're providing resellers with access to the software solutions they need to support key vertical markets."

Executives you admire: Tech Data's president, Europe, Nestor Cano. "While heading our U.S. operations, I had the opportunity to work for Nestor, and he taught me a tremendous amount about distribution and channel operations."

Female role models: Anne Mulcahy, formerly of Xerox, "a strong female executive who rose through Xerox in difficult times and paved the way for another admirable female CEO, Ursula Burns."

Deborah Newcomb

Senior Director, Worldwide Channel marketing

Polycom

Years in position: 6 months

Years in channel: 15

Goals for this year: "Companies are evaluating telepresence, video and voice solutions and services to enable their employees to communicate and collaborate more effectively and productively over distances and realize a fast ROI. We are focused on enhancing our global partner programs including communications, co-marketing, sales tools and training to help our partners capitalize on this market."

Executives you admire: "I have the highest admiration for Polycom's CMO, Heidi Melin. Her passion and leadership are not only having a positive impact on the marketing organization but the entire company. I also have the highest admiration for Anne Mulcahy and her achievements at Xerox."

Female role models: "It would be a recipe made up of many incredible women, including my wonderful mom, Oprah, Michelle Obama, Madeleine Albright, Mother Teresa, Heidi Melin and several teaspoons of amazing friends and co-workers too many to number."

Executives you admire: Susie Nettleton, president of N2 Group and Ridgeline Technologies

Female role models: Christiane Amanpour, CNN's chief international correspondent. "She's not afraid to seek out the story in the face of much adversity as a woman and a journalist."

NEXT: Sheila O'Neil

Sheila O'Neil

Vice President, Channel Sales

Panasonic Computer Solutions Company

Years in position: 1

Years in channel: 19

Goals for this year: "This year we are expecting overall growth for Panasonic, despite the current economy. We are seeing excellent growth opportunities in certain vertical markets including health care and transportation, where our new Toughbook U1 and H1 are creating new business opportunities for us and our resellers."

Executives you admire: Anne Mulcahy, formerly of Xerox

Female role models: "Katie Pushor, who was president at MicroAge Vendor Management, and was able to manage work, family and her health, but still be a strong and assertive leader."

Tracy Pallas

Director, Worldwide Channels

Cisco IronPort Systems

Years in position: 2.5

Years in channel: 11

Goals for this year: "I will be deeply focused on the continuing integration of IronPort products, services and partners into the Cisco global channel. To achieve these goals will require increased collaboration with every functional group within IronPort: product development, sales, finance, business systems, operations and support."

Executives you admire: NA

Female role models: Condoleezza Rice

Julie Parrish

Vice President, Global Partner Sales

NetApp

Years in position: 8 months

Years in channel: 23

Goals for this year: "Continue to make it easier for partners to do business with us by investing in them. We will be implementing a global survey process to understand partner experience across all touch points. We will also build capability and shift capacity for services delivery to our partners; we have significantly dropped pricing on fee-based services enablement training and changed our compensation model; improved programs, pricing and processes for partners selling into the midsize enterprise market; launch programs for partners that would like to participate in the shift to hosting. NetApp will not be a hosting provider but will work with selected providers to create appropriate solutions and programs for partners to deliver hosted solutions."

Executives you admire: John W. Thompson, former Symantec CEO: "John made several bold moves while at Symantec, including having the vision and leadership to drive the industry agenda around the importance of combining storage and security."

Female role models: "As with mentors, there are many females I have worked with or know that have influenced who I am as a person or how I lead. My mom has been a terrific role model in terms of instilling a sense of duty, responsibility and work ethic. While she did not have a career, per se, she was certainly CEO of the household and led many, many volunteer efforts in every community in which we lived. I have also learned as much from the men I've worked for -- getting their perspective on how to succeed 'as a woman's in a man's world' is as valuable as getting that perspective from other women."

Wendy Petty

Vice President, North American Sales

FalconStor

Years in position: 10

Years in channel: 20

Goals for this year: The company is hiring executives within sales and marketing to expand global footprint and revenue opportunities for partners worldwide. Also, FalconStor aims to change the rules of backup and recovery by enlisting the channel to help FalconStor's customers enhance their data protection infrastructure when cost-saving initiatives are fixed in 2009.

Executives you admire: Steve Jobs of Apple

Female role models: Hillary Clinton

Penny Philpot

Group Vice President, Global Partner Programs

Oracle

Years in position: 1

Years in channel: 22

Goals for this year: "Growing the Oracle partner ecosystem and delivering more incremental value and revenue via our partners together with supporting the Oracle M&A strategy as it relates to partners and the channel."

Executives you admire: Charles Phillips

Female role models: Safra Catz

NEXT: Mary Piehler

Mary Piehler

Vice President, Sales

ServerWare

Years in position: 1

Years in channel: 30

Goals for this year: "I hope to continue to collaborate more with the new partnerships being formed in the IT industry such as Sun/Oracle and EMC/Data Domain. I think these new collaborations will be key to growing our channel business in 2009/2010. I also plan to remain focused on encouraging women to enter the technology field."

Executives you admire: Tom Iannotti, senior vice president of the Technology Solutions Group for the Americas at HP. "Tom promoted me to my first management position in the late 1980s. Tom continually demonstrates tenacity toward his goals and always acts with integrity."

Female role models: "My sister, Peggy Janes. She recently retired after a 40-plus-year career at Pfizer. She set an outstanding example for her little sister -- to be a loyal employee, to work hard, roll with punches and combine a business career with community services. Most of all, she taught me that all of this could be fun!"

Nancy Reynolds

Director of Business Strategy, Global Commercial Channels, Large Enterprise Business Unit

Dell

Years in position: 1 month

Years in channel: 17

Goals for this year: "Accelerate Dell's revenue opportunities with key partners on a global basis; invest where there is value with key business partners; execute better, smarter and faster than last year."

Executives you admire: "Good listeners who surround themselves with talent and give back to those who contribute."

Female role models: NA

Susan Reynolds

Director, Channel Programs, Americas Imaging and Printing

Hewlett-Packard

Years in position: 1.5

Years in channel: 10

Goals for this year: "Grow the IPG offerings, launching new HP document management solutions in the channel, expanding tools for service-led partners selling their own managed print and print services contracts."

Executives you admire: Brenda Barnes, CEO of Sara Lee

Female role models: Brenda Barnes, CEO of Sara Lee

Carmen Richardson

Senior Channel Manager, Southern Region

LXE

Years in position: 2

Years in channel: 10

Goals for this year: Sustain revenue numbers from 2008 and develop new key contacts within the territory.

Executives you admire: Tom Riecke

Female role models: Condoleezza Rice

Ginni Rommetty

Senior Vice President, IBM Sales and Distribution

IBM

Years in position: Less than 1

Years in channel: 27

Goals for this year: "To continue to successfully execute the IBM business model through outstanding client relationships."

Executives you admire: NA

Female role models: NA

NEXT: Sonia St. Charles

Sonia St. Charles

CEO

Davenport Group

Years in position: 7

Years in channel: 7

Goals for this year: "The execution of a strategic growth plan to double customer footprint and revenues while maintaining our high standards of customer satisfaction. Balancing this rapid growth with our continued emphasis on strong customer relationships will be my overarching objective for the next 18 months. Our driving focus is on the relationship, not the transaction."

Executives you admire: "Watching our channel partner, Compellent Technologies, grow has been a powerful reminder that communicating the vision, setting the tone and hiring smart, dedicated people to fulfill that vision are fundamental to corporate success. Phil Soran, CEO and co-founder of Compellent, has created an organization that also has time to assist and advise its channel partners."

Female role models: "Regardless of your political views, you have to really admire our first lady, Michelle Obama. The more I read about her and learn about her, the more impressed I am with her accomplishments and especially her discipline."

Sandy Salty

Vice President, Marketing

Trace|3

Years in position: 2

Years in channel: 3

Goals for this year: "Acquire 100 net new accounts that do over $40K in sales for calendar year 2009. I would expect in 2011, 20 of those accounts to do more than $1M with the company and five to do more than $3M."

Executives you admire: Hayes Drumwright

Female role models: My mother

Janet Schijns

Vice President, Global Channels

Motorola

Years in position: 1

Years in channel: 15

Goals for this year: "Fully engage, empower and inspire our channels to expand their focus on profitable and sustainable growth via our enterprise mobility portfolio. Our key focus this year will be increased demand generation initiatives to help support partners' need to grow their top-line revenue and bottom-line profit by effectively and efficiently acquiring new customers."

Executives you admire: "I admire Henry Ford for his courage and vision to democratize the automobile industry and ensure that every American could work in the industry and afford the cars they produced."

Female role models: "You hear a lot about dreams at the Olympics, and Natalie du Toit's dreams could have died on a Monday morning in Cape Town when she eased her scooter out into the road after a swim practice and was broadsided by a careless driver. A week later she lay in a hospital bed with a stump where she used to have a left leg. Despite these challenges, she went on to win Gold in both the 2004 and 2008 Paralympic games and even more impressively qualified to compete in Beijing. She was also selected by her country to carry their flag in the Olympics."

Corinne Sklar

Vice President, Marketing

Bluewolf

Years in position: 3

Years in channel: 5

Goals for this year: Help grow Bluewolf revenue by 40 percent year over year. Establish a center of excellence in sales and delivery.

Executives you admire: Seth Godin

Female role models: Eva Peron

Colleen Smith

Vice President, SaaS Partner Program

Progress Software

Years in position: 4

Years in channel: 9

Goals for this year: "I will continue to expand the SaaS partner program by adding new programs and continuing to grow SaaS revenue for Progress Software. I hope to add at least 30 new partners to the program from all over the world."

Executives you admire: Carol Bartz

Female role models: My mother

NEXT: Lydia Smyers

Lydia Smyers

Senior Director

Oracle

Years in position: 4

Years in channel: 7

Goals for this year: "Through Oracle Partner Network's new communication architecture, I intend to expand our dialogue with partners around their needs. Doing this will ensure we continue to evolve the program to meet the growing needs of Oracle's diverse partner ecosystem."

Janine Soika

Director of Channel Marketing

Verio

Years in position: 1

Years in channel: 10 plus

Goals for this year: "Double the amount of channel partners currently offering Verio's solutions, recruit a broader set of partners and help drive product development. I am committed to ensuring the viaVerio partner program is the strongest and most robust in the industry."

Executives you admire: Bill Gates

Female role models: Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBay

Barbara Spicek

Vice president, worldwide channels

Brocade Communications

Years in position: 1

Years in channel: 18

Goals for this year: "I am committed to our partners' success by making sure our new channel program provides a high return on partner investment; selectivity rather than broad recruitment; quality of relationship; enablement and training at low cost as a key differentiator; and strong emphasis on improvement of overall profitability."

Executives you admire: "I generally admire executives that are innovative in their approach, open to change, tenacious and organized in driving business. However, I respect executives that are able to stay balanced and care about the human element of doing business as well."

Female role models: "If I had to choose a hybrid role model that person would be a mix between Margaret Thatcher, Carly Fiorina, Mother Teresa, Jane Goodall and Steffi Graf. They all have or had extraordinary talents and were passionate about what they did."

Jan Spring

Vice President, Channel Development

Efolder

Years in position: 2

Years in channel: 18

Goals for this year: "Twenty-four channel events! Also, continuing to build relationships, doubling the number of eFolder partners; perfecting my presentation and delivery."

Executives you admire: Arlin Sorenson

Female role models: Condoleezza Rice

Beata Stach

North American Distribution Manager

Corel

Years in position: 3

Years in channel: 11

Goals for this year: "Corel remains focused on being a must-have solution for our partners. Corel software's quality, ease of use and value pricing enables them to increase revenue and lower the impact of today's tight economy on their portfolio. Corel will continue to offer an equal playing field to our solution providers by maintaining high margins on our shrink and license products."

Brenda Stallings

President

Matrix Integration

Years in position: 30

Years in channel: 30

Goals for this year: "Fully implement the Balanced Scorecard philosophy, with the benefit that departments and their employees will be aligned and focused on common goals; fully implement a formalized performance management program; implement a more robust CRM tool; continue to add to our workforce in a down economy; accomplish growth to meet profit projections set forth for 2009, continue to establish practices around the key areas of telephony and virtualization."

Executives you admire: "I have had many individuals give me advice at different times in my career. This has given me knowledge to make good choices."

Female role models: Barbara Walters. "She has the ability to put her clients at ease and her communication skills, with whomever she interviews, appear open and sincere."

Luanne Tierney

Vice President, Worldwide Channels Marketing

Cisco

Years in position: 1

Years in channel: 13

Goals for this year: "We'll be focused on not only helping our partners survive the short term but help them position themselves to thrive once the upturn begins. In addition, we'll be bringing Cisco Partner Velocity, our unique marketing focused conference, to Europe in the fall. This will be the next step in our plans to offer Partner Velocity to our partners from around the world in an effort to help them accelerate their marketing efforts."

Executives you admire: Richard Branson

Female role models: Jessica Jackley, co-founder of Kiva.org

Kelley Turpin

Account Executive

CSI

Years in position: 7

Years in channel: 14

Goals for this year: "My hope is to see CSI grow in customers as well as profit, especially in the NC region. I would like to be instrumental in that process even in the midst of a down economy by using my creative skills and driven nature to help expand our client coverage as well as our overall strategic offerings."

Executives you admire: Nancy Hedrick

Female role models: Jamie Lee Curtis

Laurie Usewicz

Vice President, Security and Licensing

Westcon

Years in position: 3

Years in channel: 13

Goals for this year: "I look forward to leveraging the current state of the economy for continued growth. This may sound contradictory, but in fact, today's market begs the need for security solutions. In addition, leveraging the economic stimulus dollars and enabling our resellers and vendors to get their fair share will accelerate our success."

Executives you admire: Bill Gates

Female role models: Sarah Palin

Angela Vicari

President

Phalanx Technology Group

Years in position: 4

Years in channel: 17

Goals for this year: "Our goal for 2009 is to attract highly qualified salespeople to grow our business 100 percent."

Executives you admire: Steve Jobs

Female role models: Anne Mulcahy, former chairman and CEO of Xerox

NEXT: Maryann Von Seggern

Maryann Von Seggern

Director of Worldwide Channels Development, Cisco Capital

Company

Years in position: 4

Years in channel: 9

Goals for this year: "Developing Cisco Capital's marketing and support programs to create channel capacity for Cisco and help customers acquire the Cisco products and services they need both today and in the future. This includes the extended terms financing program -- credit lines and payment terms -- that provide partners with improved payment terms beyond Cisco's standard 30-day term."

Executives you admire: Carol Bartz, president and CEO of Yahoo and former CEO of Autodesk. "Carol is helping Yahoo propel itself into the future and it is now the most second visited Web site in the world."

Female role models: Cisco's Wendy Bahr

Donna Waida

Director, Channel Programs, Americas Imaging and Printing

Hewlett-Packard

Years in position: 1.5

Years in channel: 8

Goals for this year: "Grow the IPG program offerings, launching new HP document management solutions in the channel; expanding tools for service-led partners selling their own managed print and print services contracts."

Allison Watson

Corporate Vice President, Worldwide Partner Group

Microsoft

Years in position: 7

Years in channel: 21

Goals for this year: "We have been working to evolve the new Microsoft Partner Network with a number of new initiatives aimed at helping our partners reach their full business potential. We hope to strengthen our partners' technical, sales and marketing capabilities and create communities that spark innovation and connection. We want our partners to be ready to capture the new business opportunities that will come from the biggest year of product launches in Microsoft history."

Executives you admire: Indra Nooyi, CEO of Pepsi. "She has an innovative approach to collaboration and leadership and looks at opportunity in a new and different way."

Female role models: "My female role models have and continue to be the women in my family, who are successful leaders in medicine, law, business and porcelain artistry."

Sharon Woolley

Channel Sales Director

SpectorSoft

Years in position: 3

Years in channel: 33

Goals for this year: "To create an even more meaningful Passport Program that ramps up the rewards for our proactive, committed and loyal resellers."

Executives you admire: Warren Buffett

Female role models: Carly Fiorina

Victoria Zona

Channel Sales Director

Raritan

Years in position: 10

Years in channel: 17

Goals for this year: "Continue to work with our VARs and distribution partners Tech Data and Ingram Micro to find new and creative ways for them to grow revenue and net new customers for Raritan's product lines in this challenging economic climate. Also, develop a strong system of vendors, VARs and data center design firms to help Raritan grow market share and help foster relationships between these groups to give them the ability to cross-sell their solutions and learn from each other's experiences."

Executives you admire: Steve Jobs. "It was very exciting to see him go back to a company he created and breathe new life into it again with new and innovative products and go-to-market strategies."

Female role models: Wangari Muti Maathai, the Kenyan environmental and political activist. "In 2004 she became the first African woman, and the first environmentalist, to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for her 'contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace.' "

Doron Kempel says selling hyper-convergence can be challenging for solution providers, but success will come from taking business from competitors that are unprepared or hesitant to embrace the technology.